Employees Take Costa Mesa To Court - Again

 CMCEA TRIES TO BLOCK JAIL OUTSOURCING
The City of Costa Mesa announced late this afternoon that the Costa Mesa City Employees Association (CMCEA) is scheduled to appear in California Superior Court tomorrow, Tuesday, June 4th, in an attempt to block the City's proposal to outsource the Jail Services operations.  You can read the text of the City's announcement HERE.

ON THE AGENDA TOMORROW NIGHT
You will recall that I posted the City Council meeting agenda summary that included the item in which the outsourcing of the Jail operations to G4S will be considered.  You can read the staff report on that issue HERE.  This was to be considered very late on what is already a very, very packed agenda.

ASKING FOR A TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER
According to Jennifer Muir of the Orange County Employee's Association, which represents the CMCEA in these legal matters, the purpose of the court date tomorrow is to request a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to keep the City from moving forward with the the Jail Outsourcing and, ultimately, to reinstate the Preliminary Injunction that they agreed to vacate earlier this year.

AS IF WE NEEDED MORE DRAMA TOMORROW!
This will add even more tension to a meeting guaranteed to be full of it, so to speak.  As they say when they run they present the Costa Mesa Minute, "There's always something happening in Costa Mesa."

Study Session Canceled plus Jailers Suspended

NO QUORUM, NO MEETING (NO PROGRESS)
What's that old phrase, "The best laid plans...."? Well, the study session Tuesday in which the council was to hear from the Costa Mesa Police Department on several issues, including gangs, was canceled. It seems three of the five council members were absent - no quorum, no meeting. Oh, well. I certainly hope they don't wait another month before hearing what the CMPD has to say on this subject... it's too important.

VIDEO OF GANGS IN THE O.C.
One of the folks who posted anonymous comments on my last post on this subject, a person who identified him or herself as "cmtruth", provided a url to a YouTube video that is fascinating. For those who missed it, simply click HERE and you'll be taken directly to the video. Once there you can watch it, then view the other four in the series by British documentarian and actor, Ross Kemp from the menu on the right side of the page. It's a fascinating study on Gangs of Orange County and the first two mention Costa Mesa extensively. CAUTION: these video clips - each is around 10 minutes long - are not for casual viewing.

GRAND JURY REPORT ON LACY JAIL BEATING DEATH
All over the news in the past couple days is the grand jury report on the beating death of inmate John Chamberlain in the Theo Lacy Jail here in Orange County. Based on that report and the news coverage thereof, it seems the poor fellow was beaten to death by a half dozen of his fellow inmates - perhaps because one of his jailers mis-identified him to other prisoners as a child molester.

LAZY JAILERS?
It now turns out that the jailers don't do a very good job of paying attention to their charges in the hoosegow. There are reports that they watch television, leave their posts to workout and generally ignore prisoners. The names of several jail personnel who have been suspended were published in the newspapers Tuesday. You can read the Los Angeles Times article HERE and the Orange County Register article HERE. I looked for familiar names but didn't find any.

JAIL TOURS TOO LONG FOR DEPUTIES
I'm not really surprised that the sheriff's deputies who are performing the job of jailers ignore their duties. The tour in the jail can be 6 or 7 years - perhaps even longer if a person requests it. I've been led to believe that's the case with our former mayor, Allan Mansoor. In my opinion, using deputies as jailers for an extended period of time is a waste of training and talent. Perhaps the new Sheriff of Orange County, whomever it turns out to be, will address this issue. We do know that interim sheriff, Jack Anderson, has stated he wants to replace sworn deputies in the jail with civilian custodial officers. Sounds like a good start to me.

MANSOOR ON THE MEAN STREETS? - OMIGOD!
Of course, that means that Mansoor will actually have to become a real law enforcement officer and work in the streets. I'm sorry, but I can't help but smile...